Page:The Harveian oration, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, Wednesday, June 27th, 1877 (IA b22314623).pdf/32

 cruelty direct experiments made upon animals. After referring to the good work done by our distin- guished fellow Dr. Brunton, whom he describes as

"Promptus aberrantes vivisecare canes,"

and, after alluding to the popular errors prevailing on the subject, he exclaims :

"Hoc crudele aliquid nobilitatis habet, Hic simul humanis prodesse inventa videntur ; Quoque loco cecidit rana, resurgit homo."

Assuming that we have acquired a power to recognise the germs giving rise to febrile and infective processes, or of the cansa proxima (to use an antiquated term) of other morbid conditions, we could not hope to determine satisfactorily by chemical reagents in the test-tube the antidote that would neutralise them. This would merely be an ancillary method, guiding to further re- searches; the real value of the antidote could not be established in any other way than by experi- ment upon a living body into which the germs had been introduced. Valuable as are the reports of Dr. Baxter,* as to the relative disinfecting power of chlorine, permanganate of potash, sulphurous acid, and heat, they deal only with contagia out- side the body. We have probably all of us in practice hoped that, by introducing these and similar agents into the discased body, we might

No. 6.
 * Report of Medical Officer of Prizy Council, 1875; Appendix